Has anyone else noticed that people building their own houses in Ireland get completely hammered by tax?! In the UK you don't pay stamp duty on a site valued below £125k. Here you pay the punitive non-residential rate, even though, by having planning permission, it's obviously bloody residential! We're treated the same as someone building a factory, or an office building. The first €10k only is exempt - When was the last time you saw a site for €10k?
We pay VAT - the full whack - on every single thing in your house - labour and materials. In the UK, there is a zero VAT rate on construction costs and that applies to self builders too, not just professional builders/developers.
Then on top of all that we're stung with anything from a few grand to €20k or more in 'development contributions'. A lot of people are under the mistake impression that this is for development that you will benefit from in your lifetime. That is not necessarily the case... It only has to be used to benefit someone living somewhere in your county. There is no obligation whatsoever on the Council to ever provide you with mains water, sewerage, decent roads or a school, never mind a playground or two, in return for that money. Nor is there any accountability on exactly what your money paid for. AFAIK, these are treated as 'income' for the council and senior staff get paid bonuses based on the amount we all pay- that's just not right.
What bothers me is that none of this is means-tested and there is no sliding scale dependant on your income. Being able to build a house doesn't make you rich. So a first-time buyer, on a low income, who happens to be building instead of buying a house, gets absolutely no help whatsoever from the government. In stamp duty and contributions alone we will have paid €20k. The only reason this doesn't cause complete uproar, I think, is because we can all stick it on the mortgage. But that's just not good enough. None of us have that kind of money lying around. We have to borrow it, which means that we couldn't afford it in the first place, so we then have to pay another €20k or so in interest to a bank over the rest of our lives for the privilege.
Anyone else totally browned off about this? Has anyone thought of doing something about it?
We pay VAT - the full whack - on every single thing in your house - labour and materials. In the UK, there is a zero VAT rate on construction costs and that applies to self builders too, not just professional builders/developers.
Then on top of all that we're stung with anything from a few grand to €20k or more in 'development contributions'. A lot of people are under the mistake impression that this is for development that you will benefit from in your lifetime. That is not necessarily the case... It only has to be used to benefit someone living somewhere in your county. There is no obligation whatsoever on the Council to ever provide you with mains water, sewerage, decent roads or a school, never mind a playground or two, in return for that money. Nor is there any accountability on exactly what your money paid for. AFAIK, these are treated as 'income' for the council and senior staff get paid bonuses based on the amount we all pay- that's just not right.
What bothers me is that none of this is means-tested and there is no sliding scale dependant on your income. Being able to build a house doesn't make you rich. So a first-time buyer, on a low income, who happens to be building instead of buying a house, gets absolutely no help whatsoever from the government. In stamp duty and contributions alone we will have paid €20k. The only reason this doesn't cause complete uproar, I think, is because we can all stick it on the mortgage. But that's just not good enough. None of us have that kind of money lying around. We have to borrow it, which means that we couldn't afford it in the first place, so we then have to pay another €20k or so in interest to a bank over the rest of our lives for the privilege.
Anyone else totally browned off about this? Has anyone thought of doing something about it?